Essay Help

Help! I've never written a research essay!
Where do I start? What do I do? What do I include?

We will try to answer these questions in the next lessons. This page will provide some additional information.

http://superhum.edu.glogster.com/researchessay/

essay tips for and by students_2012.doc

Download the essay assignment sheet here: Unit1_Nazi Germany Assessment.doc
Hand in your essay with this sheet (criteria + checklist) stapled to the front: Template for Nazi Research essay (1).doc

Getting started

Don't let the term 'Hypothesis' scare you from writing a good essay. A hypothesis is just a question which you are going to answer in your essay.

How do you go about finding a topic?
The topic (Social aspects of Nazi Germany between 1933 - 1945) is very broad. The trick is to find a smaller aspect op this period that you find interesting, and then find a good book or online journal article about that aspect. (Step 2)
You now need to read up on this particular aspect that you have chosen. (Step 3)
Once you have read up on it, you are in a position to further narrow your focus and try to find more sources of information on this new narrower focus.(Step 4)
Now you can come up with a question that you will attempt to answer.
Step 5 to 8 are all about the writing process, more on that later.

Choosing a topic

As an example, let's take this very broad sub-topic: Propaganda.
You read a chapter or do some general online Google-based research and the name that keeps coming up is Joseph Goebbels. You find some more information about him and discover that through his use of propaganda, he was instrumental in creating the German totalitarian state. You could now formulate this question: "To what extent was Joseph Goebbels instrumental in establishing the Nazi totalitarian state?"
A good way to further focus your question is by adding a time frame to it: "To what extent was Joseph Goebbels instrumental in establishing a totalitarian state in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1939?"
Go back to the library (school or local council) and find some more information. JSTOR and EBSCO are also great sources of information.
Once you have read up on the topic, you can start writing.

How to structure an essay

It is important to plan your essay structure before you start.
This site gives some great pointers for Historical essays: unimelb.edu.au/asu/writing/structure/index.html

Your structure could look like this: essaystructure1.gif
Or like this:essaystructure2.jpg (From Melb Uni)

Do NOT start with the introduction. Start writing the paragraphs you feel most comfortable with, have the most information / evidence for.
After you have all the body paragraphs, write the introduction and conclusion.

Intro:

An intro should be about 10% of the essay. An introduction should show how are going to answer the question, by

1. indicating how you are going to argue your point,
2. giving an overview of the organisation of what follows,
3. indicating the sort of material or evidence you will be using.

It is a good idea to use your first sentence to answer your own question.

Paragraphs:

One idea/sub-topic per paragraph. Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence. The topic sentence is usually the first sentence of the paragraph. It gives the reader an idea of what the paragraph is going to be about. The supporting sentences need to be about the idea presented in the topic sentence and further provide 'evidence'. Evidence is given by using relevant quotes from authorative sources and examples from history.

Conclusion:

A conclusion should bring together different sections of the essay. The statements you made in your introductory paragraph should have been fully explained and you should have provided evidence as to how you have reached these conclusions.
Try to refer back to the topic and end on a well-reasoned, logical note which flows logically from the arguments and information you have presented in previous paragraphs. Do not include any new material in the conclusion.

Accessing online journals & using ref works

Using online journal databases is a very good way to access quality information. Be aware of general online sources; any one can put any thing on the internet. The main advantage of books and online journal articles are that they have been vetted by academics and editors and that they often contain the fruits of many months and years of research. Many internet based resources do not offer that advantage.

• Go via the library main page to either access JSTOR or EBSCO MasterFile Premiere. Click on the tab "Journals and Newspapers" on the library mainpage.
• Download the refwords handout from the library: RefWorks Handout 27Feb09.doc
• Click here for an example of results from EBSCO: http://rss.ebscohost.com/AlertSyndicationService/Syndication.asmx/GetFeed?guid=2006862
• Try this link for JSTOR (only works at school): JSTOR link

Referencing

http://www.bibme.org/ (Citation wizard, creates the citations for you)